Daniel R. Premkumar, PhD

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Biography

Prior to joining the faculty of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh in 2008, Daniel R. Premkumar, PhD, was a senior scientist at a biotechnology company. He graduated from Madurai Kamaraj University in India where he earned his masters and PhD degrees. Dr. Premkumar then completed his post-doctoral training at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Dr. Premkumar has published more than 40 papers in refereed journals and has been awarded patents to characterize protein-protein interaction biosensors for cellular systems biology profiling. He is currently examining the efficacy of promising various receptor inhibitors, for inhibiting glioma proliferation in vitro, using genotypically diverse panel of malignant glioma cell lines to identify potential genotype-response associations.

Specialized Areas of Interest

Major research emphasis is directed towards understanding the molecular mechanisms of receptor tyrosine kinase inhibition and signaling in malignant human glioma cell lines.

Professional Organization Membership

American Association for Cancer ResearchAmerican Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

A complete list of Dr. Premkumar's publications can be reviewed through the National Library of Medicine's publication database.

Research Activities

Malignant human gliomas are highly invasive primary tumors with poor prognosis despite advances in multimodality therapy. Glioma accounts for 30% of brain cancer, and 80% of gliomas are malignant. Glioma is characterized by uncontrolled cellular proliferation, diffuse infiltration, necrosis, and resistance to apoptosis. Several genes such as TP53, PTEN, CDKN2A, and EGFR, altered in glial tumorigenesis.

The molecular and genetic aberrations in glioma have been extensively studied and show remarkable heterogeneity even within an individual tumor, which facilitate therapeutic resistance in the tumor cells via various signaling pathways. Thus, new therapeutic approaches are urgently needed.

We have identified several critical “nodes’ for cell death signaling (including NF-κB, proteasomes, AKT and Bcl-2 family proteins), when inhibited, promoted apoptotic signaling in glioma cells. Currently, our group is working on to understand the molecular mechanisms that are integrally involved in mediating glioma resistance to apoptotic signaling.